stay connected... not killed. For the past three years, Matt has been organizing and coaching a youth Ultimate Frisbee program at the high school level, and he is simply loving it. “Working with kids is a lot of fun,” he says, straight-faced, and encourages anyone looking to get involved in youth activities to get in touch. Finally, as this issue is dedicated to Non Sibi Day and the spirit of service year-round, I asked Osei Wilks to describe his experience volunteering with the Crisis Text Line, a national, 24-7 crisisintervention hotline that provides emergency counseling via text. Since its founding in 2013, the Crisis Text Line has exchanged more than 26 million messages with people in crisis, the majority of whom are under age 25. Osei has been a crisis counselor since November and wrote me this description after his first month on the job (lightly edited for grammar): “My first night on the Crisis Text Line, after 1.5 months of training, was on Election Day, where the [CTL] veterans said there was an enormous spike in suicide attempts in the LGBT community and generally around the country. The conversations vary from sexual assault and abusive relationships to kids talking about stress in college, but the ultimate goal of the CTL is to take people from a hot state to a cold one, and to work on a long-term care plan (that the person in crisis comes up with). The key is empathy: The entire focus is shutting off your ego and learning to reflect someone else, but additionally inspiring them to know that they’re loved, appreciated, and capable of getting better with time. “Two weeks after the service launched, they were receiving text messages from every single zip code in America, which is indicative of the strong demand for a service like this. It’s a great community, great people, and you can do it from your couch, but it means the world to the people that you’re helping.” If you’re interested in becoming a crisis counselor, visit www.crisistextline.org. Much love, Lydia
2009 Alexander McHale 101 NE 53rd St., Apt. 2714 Oklahoma City, OK 73105 703-786-3330 pa09classnotes@gmail.com Deidra Willis 2815 Rohret Road, Apt. 201 Iowa City, IA 52246 347-342-7447 pa09classnotes@gmail.com
Hey ’09, this go-around of class notes is full of big and small reunions. Andover-Exeter Weekend last fall marked the 10th anniversary of the first
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www.andover.edu/intouch A-E home games for ’09. Coincidentally, it was the fall meeting for the Alumni Council, where Deidra Willis, Krystle Manuel-Countee, William Thompson-Butler, and Andrew Pohly represented our class well in various committees. Shout-out to the others in ’09 who have served and made us such a well-represented class! Alumni Council members meet twice per year on campus, maintain contact between alumni and selected areas of school life, and serve to support the Academy in various endeavors involving alumni. Each member is appointed to a four-year term, and if you haven’t been involved yet, this is the perfect time to join! At the games that Saturday, ’09 kicked it up a notch as more classmates arrived including Alexander McHale, Sarah Sheu, Johnny Carmona, Andrew Ang, Arun Saigal, Morgan Healey, B.J. Garry ’10, Tom Hamel ’10, and Annie Pates ’10. There was cheering and chanting (mostly on my part) while the group caught up with one another, explored the new Bulfinch/other campus changes, and lavished in some drinks during Happy Hour at the Andover Inn. Later that night a few went back to Boston and tore up the club (#LitWeekend). In Providence, RI, Jennifer Morgan and Guy Puymartin are now roommates. In October, the two went to Tory Seman’s engagement party at her family’s house in Andover. Congrats, Tory! In November, Jennifer also met up with Sindhu Chitturi in NYC, Aiko Krishna in Connecticut, and Zoe Bogus in DC—a whole month of awesome traveling to ’09 reunions! Around Thanksgiving, Carolyn Han and Olivia Mackasey both happened to be in Marrakesh at the same time—what are the chances! They had a fun lunch with their other halves on a lovely souk rooftop and took great pictures. At just about the same time in NYC, Deidra Willis and Tina Kit caught up over every millennial’s favorite meal—brunch. At the beginning of December, Kyle Ofori met up with Johnny Carmona and Andrew Ang in Boston close to the end of Kyle’s first semester at the Kennedy School, where he and Nick Serna ’10 are classmates. And in more life news, Kenny Gould launched Hop Culture, an online magazine for craft beer drinkers. Congrats on the launch, Kenny! Be sure to check it out at www.hopculture.com. Also in December, Alex McHale attended the wedding of Frederick Grace ’10 in Palm Beach, FL, which had many other Andover friends in attendance, including Hannah Kauffman, Gustavo Tavares, Becca Bendetson, Lillian Reape, Andrew Fraser ’10, Sam Poliquin ’10, Khalid McCaskill ’10, and of course, Frederick’s brother Nicholas Grace ’10. The squadron put their Ryley Room dance skills to use, and welcomed Frederick’s new wife, Catherine,
into the Andover family while enjoying some much-needed respite from the winter weather. Later that month, Deidra Willis and Malik Jenkins joined a host of other Andover NYC Af-Lat-Am alums at the tasty SpaHa Soul for “An Evening with LaShawn Springer,” the newest director of CAMD. There was good food, great company, holiday cheer, endless reminiscing, and meaningful conversations about the current state of Andover and how Af-Lat-Am alums play an important role. Mark your calendars for the upcoming celebration of Af-Lat-Am’s 50th anniversary in 2018—it is sure to be a great time for all those who can get back to campus. Along with the spirit of giving from the holidays, this April is the 10th anniversary of Non Sibi Day! As I’m sure you all remember, non sibi is PA’s motto, and in the past few years it has developed into an important alumni event named Non Sibi Weekend. This weekend of service involves a collective effort of outreach, planning, and organizing service projects around the world. Kyle Ofori and his fiancée participated in a Non Sibi Day back in the summer, where they met a recent Andover alum who was at the University of Michigan, as well as the parents of another alum from 2011. The Non Sibi event in Detroit involved sorting food onto pallets in a warehouse at Gleaners Community Food Bank. Also in true non sibi fashion, Declan Cummings has been heavily involved with Korean American Sharing Movement, a registered nonprofit that runs leadership programs for high-potential, ambitious North Korean defectors attending universities in Seoul. As a member of their board, Declan helps the organization work with agencies in DC to run a three-week leadership program for 15 defectors every summer. The group also coordinates alumni programs for our 50+ alumni throughout the year in Seoul. They recognize that a change in the North Korean regime will mark not only the end of many serious problems, but also the beginning of multigenerational challenges that will affect the global community. To learn more, check out their website at www.kasm.org and Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ kasmbuildsleaders. As always, it’s a pleasure to hear all of your updates. Please continue to submit them to Alex and me at pa09classnotes@gmail.com. With Big Blue Pride, Deidra
2010 Courtney King 343 15th St. Santa Monica, CA 90402 310-984-0882 (cell) courtney.king116@gmail.com Will Lindsey 27 Commerce St., Apt. 1A New York, NY 10014 919-308-9866 will.lindsey23@gmail.com Andrew Townson 978-886-8191 andrew.townson@gmail.com
In July, Jennifer Schaffer-Goddard married Jonathan Goddard at Temple Church in London, with Tiffany Li ’09 as her maid of honor. Andrew Mitchell ’11 and Lucy Arnold were also in attendance. In October, Jenn began a PhD program at Cambridge University, where her research, based in the English faculty, will look at artificial intelligence and human desire. Congrats, Jenn! This July will see another ’10 wedding when Kyleigh Keating marries her fiancé, Anthony Russ, whom she met in college. And of course, Katie Riley will be her maid of honor. Kyleigh has been busy teaching fifth-grade math and science in Boston and now does fundraising for Noble and Greenough. Duncan Crystal has been busy coaching middle school wrestling in Alexandria, VA, for the past few years and is looking forward to his third season. He had a terrific mini Andover reunion with Dayo Adewole, Taryn Ferguson, Turner Shaw ’11, Kate Bulger ’11, and Sheya Jabouin ’11. Courtney King will be graduating from Columbia University in May with a degree in sociology. She’s been working on an ethnography about gender norms in kids’ sports groups for her thesis. She is excited to begin an internship at an executive search firm in January. Courtney was happy to eat sushi with Andrew Townson in NYC this past fall at the newly opened Sugarfish NYC. Andrew spent the summer backpacking solo across Europe and walked nearly 800 miles. He now lives in Baltimore, where he’s opening a ramen shop with a college friend. If anyone comes through Charm City, he’d love to have you in the shop. Ziwe Fumudoh has been making the rounds in the NYC stand-up circuit. When she’s not hosting monthly shows, she can be seen in her new Web series, “Baited,” on Lorne Michaels’ comedy website, aboveaverage.com. Will Lindsey is also in New York, working in the Alternative Investments Group at Goldman Sachs. He frequently sees Alex Gray, Paul Bloemsma, and Sebastian Becker. Benjamin Prawdzik will be attending
Stanford University in the fall to pursue an MBA. He was recently in San Francisco for Lucy Arnold’s Christmas party. Conor McAuliffe, Greg Hanafin, and Anne Hunter were also toasting the holidays along with Chase Ebert ’09, Mary Strong ’09, Hugh Edmundson ’08, and Tiffany Li ’09. Sarah Jacobson is also living in and loving SF. She’s working for a health care startup, and recently made a trip to the East Coast where she had a blast seeing Ramya Prathuri and Sophia Jia. Lauren King also made a trip to the Bay Area over the summer, and they accidently hiked a snowcovered mountain in July. Whoops. Back on the Eastern Seaboard, Rob Stevens moved to DC in January to work at Accion’s Venture Lab, an impact investing fund focused on financial inclusion. This past Thanksgiving, he and Josh Feng dressed up like Pilgrims to play in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Alabama. Caroline Gezon is also in DC leading Deloitte’s pro bono work with Days for Girls International, a global nonprofit that works to provide menstrual hygiene products and education to women around the world. She’s continued to work in the global public health and vaccination space with USAID, the CDC, and the Global Vaccine Alliance. Marta Misiulaityte has been carrying the non sibi torch in Berlin, where she’s coordinating a research project that interviews asylum seekers in Germany in order to amplify their voices. She’s also helping to teach a Syrian man German—while learning Arabic herself! Jessica Moreno is in Germany as well. She’s at the University of Mannheim, in her second year of their master’s degree program in economics. This past fall she studied abroad in a small city outside Brussels. Stephen Xenakis is working for Brookfield Asset Management in Shanghai. He and several other Andover students had a Christmas gathering hosted by Alice Chan ’97; Deborah Mei ’83 had offered up her office for interviews in January. Alanna Waldman is pursuing a master’s degree in marine biology at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where she’s studying coral reef restoration assessment and monitoring. She makes frequent trips back to the Bahamas, where she used to work, and will be there in May to help assist with a new program she helped start with the University of Southern California. She traveled back to campus last April to see Dr. Jane Goodall speak, and says it was lovely to be on campus and see familiar faces, such as her swim coach, Paul Murphy ’84. Julian Chernyk spent New Year’s surfing in Puerto Rico with Spencer Macquarrie, Bennett Carroccio, and his brother Oliver Chernyk ’15. After starting her academic career as a biomedical engineer at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science,
Tristin Moone decided to commit to a career in southwest archaeology to be closer to home. She has been hard at work at a cultural resource management company based in Farmington, NM, as an archaeological technician. She works directly with the Navajo (Diné) Nation, and her company was recently awarded Business of the Year at the 2016 Navajo Nation Economic Summit. She has been a Peabody Advisory Committee member as an Andover alumna and Native American. She still plays softball when she has time.
2011 Christopher Batchelder 4 Raymond St. Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA 01944 batch@unc.edu Oriekose Idah 8 Sycamore Lane Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274 oidah0608@gmail.com Kevin Song 1 Windy Hill Road Green Brook, NJ 08812 kevin@andover11.com Edith Young 470 Park Ave., Apt. 2D New York, NY 10022 edithwyoung@gmail.com
2012 5th REUNION June 9–11, 2017 Miranda Haymon 197 Clare Ave. Boston, MA 02136 617-308-6252 mirandahaymon@gmail.com Lauren Howard P.O. Box 1352 Lexington, VA 24450 860-682-4641 (cell) howardl16@mail.wlu.edu Sydney Keen 520 Franklin St. Reading, MA 01867 781-640-3037 sydneykeen93@gmail.com
Hey, ’12ers! We’re back again with more updates from our class. So many of us have awesome new jobs and have moved to new cities—so impressive! Can’t believe it’s been five years since we gathered on the Great Lawn for Commencement! Miranda Haymon is at Arena Stage in DC, Andover | Summer 2017
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